Heritage Planning

Principles and Process

Harold Kalman, Marcus R. Létourneau

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780429776748
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Architektur
• Subtopic: Stadtplanung & Landschaftsgestaltung

This new and substantially revised edition of Heritage Planning: Principles and Process offers an extensive overview of the burgeoning fields of heritage planning and conservation. Positioning professional practice within its broader applied and theoretical contexts, the authors provide a firm foundation for understanding the principles, history, evolution, debates, and tools that inform heritage planning, while also demonstrating how to effectively enact these processes.

Few published works focus on the practice of heritage planning. The first edition of this book was developed to fill this gap, and this second edition builds upon it. The book has been expanded in scope to incorporate new research and approaches, as well as a wide range of international case studies. New themes reflect the emerging recognition that sustainability, climate resilience, human rights, social justice, and reconciliation are fundamental to the future of planning.

Heritage Planning is indispensable reading, not only for professionals who transform the built environment, but for anyone who wants to understand the ideas and practices of heritage planning and conservation.

For the benefit of student readers, twelve chapters—designed to accommodate the academic semester—are augmented with concise summaries, key terms and definitions, questions, and learning objectives.

1

The Nature of Heritage Planning

Learning Objectives

Readers will learn about

• The fundamental concepts of heritage planning.
• The different types of heritage assets and why we conserve them.
• Changing approaches to heritage conservation.
• The profession of heritage planning and how it differs from heritage conservation and heritage advocacy.
• Various factors that encourage heritage conservation.
• The nature of community planning, including planning and development controls.
• The relationships between community planning and heritage planning.

Key terms

Heritage planning, Heritage conservation, Community planning, Heritage advocacy, Heritage asset, Historic place, Movable cultural heritage, Immovable cultural heritage, Intangible cultural heritage, Cultural landscape, Bylaw, Ordinance, Zoning, Incentive zoning

1.1 Heritage Planning

What is heritage planning?

Heritage planning is the application of heritage conservation within the context of community planning. The objective of heritage planning is to manage change wisely. It is not intended to prevent change. This is the main theme of the present book, which is a practical manual of heritage planning.

‘The aim of conservation,’ we read in Australia's Burra Charter, an important collection of heritage principles, ‘is to retain the cultural significance of a [historic] place’ (Australia ICOMOS 2000: Article 2.2). The Burra Charter and other guiding documents are introduced in Chapter 4. Heritage conservation does not aim to freeze a historic place in time. It strives to maintain the significance of a historic place within the real-world contexts of urban planning, development, growth, and change. This is most successful when conservation and development sectors work together.

Heritage planning is the application of heritage conservation (also called historic preservation) within the context of community planning. The objective of heritage planning is to manage change wisely, and not to prevent change.

Figure 1.1Heritage planning may be considered as a subset of both heritage conservation and community planning.

Heritage conservation, called ‘historic preservation’ in the United States, is the broad field that addresses all aspects of retaining and enhancing historic places and other kinds of cultural heritage resources (or heritage assets). Historic places comprise buildings, towns, landscapes, archaeological sites, and other places that hold historical, aesthetic, cultural, social, spiritual, and/or scientific meaning to the community – what we call heritage significance. Community planning devises policies and plans that show what a community wants to become. It develops visions and policies for topics such as the use of land, the treatment of the natural and built environments, transportation, and much more. Heritage conservation and community planning are both described later in this chapter and throughout the book.

Heritage planning guides the development of sustainable, resilient, and healthy communities. It is many things: a technical field of study and practice, a political process, and an area of broad, popular interest. It combines the theory and practice of heritage conservation with those of community planning. Heritage planning is based on the premise that conservation and development are potential partners in the management of change.

The present book has been written for many kinds of readers. They include professionals and students in heritage conservation or community planning. Both are applied sciences, as distinct from social sciences, and both are largely place-based. Other intended readers are those who want to help improve the urban or rural environment in which they live, and those who are simply interested in understanding how their communities work.

‘Save our heritage!’ ‘Don't tear it down!’ ‘Preserve our history!’ These are the traditional, if clichéd, battle cries of people who object to the proposed demolition of a valued historic building, the removal of a beloved old tree, or an intended development on top of a precious archaeological site. Losing their beloved historic place would not only destroy the valued object. It would also mean losing the many powerful social and cultural associations that touch the community in a meaningful way. Engaged citizens will go to great lengths to conserve the places they treasure. They will stage demonstrations, pressure politicians, communicate in the public media, negotiate with the developer, and even lie down in front of the proverbial bulldozer (which, of course, is yet another cliché!).

These visceral reactions to threats to a treasured landmark are acts of heritage advocacy. Advocacy draws in the community and the government through political and educational action. Advocacy is often emotional and confrontational. Heritage advocates sometimes speak of their activity as a ‘movement’, which is a distinctly politicized and ideological term.¹

Figures 1.2 and 1.3Demonstrators in Greenwich Village, New York, are heritage advocates; the facilitator of the community workshop in Campbell River, BC, Canada, is a heritage planner. (Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation; Harold Kalman)

Heritage advocates sometimes demonstrate a zeal that is akin to a faith-based or religious system. This is evident in public meetings that debate a threat to a landmark beloved by the community. The popularity of the term ‘preservationist’ to describe a person who advocates preservation underlines this point. A ‘preservationist’ – or any other ‘-ist’ – is the follower of a belief system or a dogma – often called an ‘-ism’. Examples of ‘-ists' are Buddhists and Communists, who adhere to Buddhism and Communism, respectively. The term ‘preservationist’ describes a heritage advocate or activist, who is a believer of sorts (in ‘Preservationism’?). It is not, however, a correct term with which to describe a heritage planner. The planner is supposed to be an objective professional. One person may, of course, wear both hats, but preferably at different times.

Advocates often see a conflict between conservation (also called ‘preservation’; see below, Section 1.2) and development. At a more personal level, they may perceive a struggle between the ‘preservationist’ (i.e., the preservation advocate) and the ‘developer’ (i.e., the so-called demolition advocate). The optics may suggest that demolition threats are skirmishes that inevitably lead to an ‘either-or’ resolution. This, however, most certainly need not be the case. As American planner Norman Tyler writes:

Preservationists are not against development; they are against bad development. They are opposed to development that is insensitive to the existing context of a community and its significant resources and heritage. They are in favour of development that blends new and old in a compatible way that strengthens both. (Tyler et al. 2009: 269)

Heritage conservation began with advocacy. Many respected heritage organizations, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, began as advocacy groups. That organization was established by Congress in 1949 ‘in order to further [federal heritage] policy … and to facilitate public participation in the preservation of sites, buildings, and objects of national significance or interest.’ Its early activities involved work ‘to inform the nation of the need to preserve its heritage, to arouse opinion and sentiment in favour of preservation and to mobilize the public to form preservation groups' (Mulloy 1976: 12). This is advocacy.

Threats to historic places can, however, be addressed in a more collaborative manner. Cooler heads may work together to find solutions that will satisfy (almost!) everybody – the property owners, the politicians, and the community. Regulations and practices have been adopted for this very purpose. The process of rational dialogue, application of legal tools, and creative resolution is called heritage planning. It is also known as preservation planning, historic preservation planning, or heritage conservation planning. Heritage planning seeks solutions to the proposed loss of a historic place. In contrast to advocacy, it seeks to do so in a non-activist and non-confrontational manner. It is a collaborative process that channels advocates' enthusiasm into rational dialogue among various community interests. Heritage planning and heritage advocacy are two facets of the broad field of heritage conservation (called historic preservation in the United States).

Heritage planning begins with several assumptions: communities possess historic places that they value, the significance of those places is reason to retain them, legitimate social and economic pressures threaten to change those historic places and their contexts, and a body of international principles can be drawn upon to guide those changes. Heritage planning is a professional discipline, whereas heritage advocacy is an ideological movement.

Heritage planning looks for solutions that encourage conservation and development to work as partners.

Heritage planning looks for solutions that encourage conservation and development to work as partners. Development planners and heritage planners both recognize that every living community must change continually over time to accommodate evolving social and economic needs and values. They know that historic places are esteemed and that development should be managed in a way that respects those values. Heritage planning requires an understanding of the broad social, economic, and legal contexts of heritage. It also requires the ability to communicate and co-operate with the various interested parties and to learn from community values and desires. It depends on co-operation and partnerships with the ...